Spangle…a new tangle...or tangleation?

A pattern element has been appearing in my tangles for the past few years. It may be a tangleation of the official Zentangle® pattern called Ynix which, I believe, remains unpublished. While I love drawing Ynix, usually only the seed elements of it appear in my work, perhaps because it is a shape that my hand finds very comfortable to draw. Introducing…Spangle, illustrated here with its cousin Ynix.

You’ll notice that Ynix starts with seed shapes in pairs surrounded by auras; Spangle has the same seed shapes which are clustered and flow randomly in many directions, most often without auras but occasionally they sneak in.

The name comes from Spangle Grass, another name for Northern Oat Grass, which has seed heads that resemble this shape in its early summer stage. 

Upon closer look, I could see a woven pattern within the seed head which became the inspiration for embellishing Spangle with various patterns. Add a single dot and it looks like a school of fish; add striations and they look like almonds...and so on.

Using a blank Zendala title, I drew a  seed-shaped string with a Prismacolor pencil (limepeel) and filled it with Spangle. I then filled the individual 'spangles' with about 28 different embellishments.

And here is the same Zendala with added colors of light aqua and pale vermilion.

Disclaimer: If this pattern has appeared elsewhere as a tangle pattern, please let me know so that I can give full credit. 

The Diva's Weekly Challenge #80

Imagine how surprised I was to see that my tangle design, Mi², was selected by The Diva (Laura Harms, CZT) as this week's challenge. Well, here is my contribution. As you can see, I love sprinkling seed shapes throughout my tangles. Tune in again next week as I come up with more tangles to 'seedify.'

Thanks Laura!

Mi² Revisited

A few months ago I submitted a tangle pattern, called  Mi² (Me Too), to CZT Linda Farmer's tanglepatterns.com. From there it took on a life of its own as Rick Roberts highlighted (and elegantly simplified) it on Blog Zentangle and the Zentangle Newsletter. Later, Maria Thomas praised its charms again on their blog. Then today, as I was composing my blog post with some tips on how to more easily set up the underlying 'seed' structure of the pattern, I discovered that CZT Laura Harms, has selected Mi² as weekly challenge #80 on her fabulously inspiring blog, I Am the Diva. Be sure to see Maria's sparkling contribution to the diva's challenge here. Okay, I know I've probably inserted way too many links in this brief paragraph, but it's my way of thanking Linda, Rick, Maria, Laura, and all of you who have adapted this pattern to your own zentangle-inspired art. I love finding it in unexpected places!
Here are some tips and illustrations for beginning this tangle pattern that may possibly make it easier to draw the initial 'seeds.'  With your micron pen, draw small diagonal lines, in alternate directions, for as many rows as you like. Be sure that each diagonal line is slanting opposite to the one above, below, and on either side. Then go back and connect the bottom to the top of each side of the slanted line with a mini-crescent moon. To complete the seed, fill in (or not) with ink. See here for the remaining tangle steps.

As you can see, I've varied the length of the lines, which adds to the fun. I hope this helps.